Here is my critical self reflection for this music video project. This blog post is written by me (Beatrice).
The Music Promotion brief set by Cambridge required the creation of a music video, social media page, and digipak. Our team decided to cover Billie Eilish's song "Birds of a Feather", which falls under the indie-pop genre. We created a fictional indie pop artist named Jasmine, alongside a featured artist, Viola. Our target audience are teenage girls aged 16 to 24 who value creativity, and we aimed to emphasize a dominant reading centred on friendships and relatability. This essay discusses how we use technical elements to create consistent branding, conform and subvert conventions, represents social groups, and engage the audience throughout all of our media products.
Branding in the media refers to the way media products establish a clear and recognizable identity across different platforms by using consistent themes, aesthetics, and messages to create a strong connection with the audience. According to Stuart Hall's Reception theory, branding helps encode meaning that audiences can associate with the artist through all forms of media, being able to receive the star's preferred meaning. Our branding remains consistent by featuring Jasmine's artwork across all of our products (Fig 1.1 - 1.3). This encodes our star as creative and fun. Moreover, posting these on her social media page gives the impression that our star is still just an ordinary person, making her feel more relatable, which conforms to the convention of indie pop artist's personality. Richard Dyer's Stardom theory states that stars are constructed by the media, rather than real people, so we've carefully constructed Jasmine's REEL persona by prioritizing personal over promotional contents in Jasmine's social media to make her appear more down-to-earth. Even in professional posts, our tone remains consistent in maintaining Jasmine’s youthful and relatable brand identity. This is achieved by using informal language, emojis, direct mode of address, and a lowercase writing style, mirroring how teenagers typically communicate online.
To make sure that we understand the conventions of the genre that we are working with, I have conducted in-depth research on indie and pop music videos, which helped us make decisions on whether to conform or subvert these expectations. We conformed to the representations of social groups of teenage girls by including activities they typically engage in, such as hanging out while collecting shells at the beach and having matching bracelets (Fig 2). According to Barthes' Semiotics theory, these elements act as symbolic codes, as the bracelets signify the strength of their friendship. This is revealed at the end of the video with the use of a medium shot to reveal that Viola is still wearing the bracelet, a symbol of their friendship. The medium shot shows the bracelet, but is also able to include the embrace that the friends are sharing.
Another feature of modern indie-pop music we conformed to was collaboration between artists. This can be labelled as synergy (when media companies collaborate for mutual benefit.) Our music video follows this by featuring Viola, another star from a different genre. This conforms to indie pop conventions, where artists often collaborate to gain more audience (e.g, Clairo and Beabadoobee's Glue Song remix in 2023). Since Viola is a more popular star compared to Jasmine, this collaboration allows Jasmine to expand her reach and attract Viola’s existing audience. Similarly, Viola benefits by gaining exposure to Jasmine’s genre, allowing her to diversify her connections and broaden her presence across genres.
Our digipak mostly conforms to the conventions of indie pop digipak design, which often features minimalistic and hand-crafted elements to create an authentic feel. To align with this aesthetic, we used a collage technique that gives the design an abstract and personal quality. Additionally, we included handwritten words to reinforce the unpolished aesthetic that is typical of the indie pop genre (Taylor Swift's 1989 album.) We also applied visible paper textures, which added depth and a tactile quality to the design to make it feel more handcrafted. (Fig 3) However, we also chose to subvert certain expectations by using an expressive handwriting style instead of the delicate cursive fonts that are commonly used in indie pop album covers, since we believe that these decisions gives the design a more contemporary touch, while maintaining its handmade feel.
Our music video represents teenagers as complex while they are experiencing the transition from adolescence to adulthood. While media typically idealizes this period by presenting a singular emotion (such as pure happiness or sadness), we decided to subvert this using technical elements to blend both the happiness and conflict that comes with growing up. Idealized memories of youth are shown through happy moments during high school, using medium two-shot shots to reinforce both actresses in the same scene (Fig 4). However these contrasted with the fight scene using close-up shots to reveal the range of emoutions Jasmine is experiencing (Fig 5). We use cooler tones in the fight scene (Fig 6.1), as it connotes sadness and emotional distance, whereas the happier scenes are presented with a warmer tone (Fig 6.2), connoting joy and comfort. This reinforces Barthes' idea that colours can function as symbolic code. Additionally, a high-angle shot of Jasmine crying (Fig 7) emphasizes her loss of control over the friendship breakup, making her appear vulnerable and powerless. By blending these contrasting emotions rather than depicting youth as purely carefree, our music video presents a more nuanced representation of adolescence. This dominant reading challenges the more common positive representation of youth by acknowledging the cherished moments and inevitable change, creating a more realistic representation that allows our audience to connect with the music video personally. The use of these techniques aligns with Stuart Hall’s Reception theory, which encourages audiences to actively interpret the meaning based on their own experiences, rather than passively accepting it.
One of the main ways we engage our audience is through the star’s social media presence (Instagram). Audiences actively seek media that fulfills their need for social connections (Blumler & Katz). In this case, social media gives fans opportunities to foster their social relationships and creates a sense of community through shared interests. Instagram's comment section allows fans to engage not only with the artist but also with each other. This aligns with Clay Shirky's End of Audience theory, where he suggests that passive audiences no longer exist in the digital age. Instead of simply consuming media, audiences are now active participants who create, share, and interact with content. Moreover, our star occasionally interacts with fans by liking or responding to their comments (Fig 8).
We have catered to the audience's needs by including interactive content in our social media. Since our stars persona centres around creativity, we included an interactive challenge on Instagram called #HeARTsforJas (Hearts for Jasmine), which encourages fans to create and share their own fan art using the hashtag (Fig 9). By creating artwork for the star, fans will be building a community of like-minded fans. This aligns with Henry Jenkins' Fandom theory, which argues that fans are active and engaged participants in media, not just passive consumers. To further increase audience engagement, our star’s social media page includes personal posts that showcase her REAL persona, such as OOTD (outfit of the day), selfies, and product she used (Fig 10). This type of content allows audiences to see aspects of themselves in the star or aspire to their lifestyle. Through this, the star strengthens parasocial relationships with their audience. Due to the constantly evolving technologies, social media allows real-time interactions and story features, which have made this level of engagement possible. These tools ensure that the audience remains consistently connected with the artist.
In conclusion, our music promotion package has conveyed our dominant reading effectively. By representing friendship as complex and nuanced, we created a relatable narrative that resonates with our target audience. Our branding also reinforced Jasmine's REEL persona, which strengthened our audience engagement. One thing I would do to improve next time is following the schedule instead of spontaneously working on this project, as our lack of time management led me to rush through our project until the very last minute. These are lessons to be learned from in my fututre endeavours.
(Fig 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3) ; Jasmine's artwork from her music video, digipak, and social media.
(Fig 2) ; medium shot shows bracelet and their hug.
(Fig 3) ; paper texture on digipak with hand-drawn doodles.
(Fig 4) ; using medium two-shot shot to reinforce the close relationship.
(Fig 5) ; using a high angle close-up shot to show her vulnerable emotions
(Fig 6.1 and 6.2) ; cooler tone for fight scene, warmer tone for happy scene.
(Fig 7) ; high angle shot to make her appear vulnerable and powerless.
(Fig 8) ; interacting with fans through comment section.
(Fig 9) ; best fan arts showcased in Jasmine's social media as a shout-out.
(Fig 10) ; REAL persona showcased in her social media page.
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